Sleeping Rose
by RedBlueYellowRanger
Summary: Rose saves Mack but doesn't save herself thus she ends up in a deep sleep. Mack vows to do what ever it takes to save his team mate and crush. Mack/Rose
1. Friendly Fire

(A/n: My second fic, different ship that I also love. R&R)

Disclaimer: Guess what... I don't own Power Rangers

Rose went in for a left hook, Ronny ducked and tried to sweep her leg under Rose's feet. Rose jumped and landed in a fight stance, Ronny got up and did the same.

"I don't know how I'm gonna beat you," Ronny huffed; trying to get her breath back, "for a smaller person you're a very powerful fighter."

"You'd only take me down if I was distracted. Which I am not." Rose repiled sounding cocky. She emphasised her point by kneeing the yellow ranger on her side.

She winced at the pain and held onto her side but looked up with a determined face, "Don't get cocky Ortiz, that's Will's job."

She showed a sly smile and her pink friend laughed. They continued sparring while holding a conversation.

"So, Rose, what's up with you lately?" Ronny asked.

"You mean besides configuring zords, working on my thesis AND saving the world. Nothing really." Rose said: unenergetic.

"No," Ronny retorted with a roll of her eyes, "I mean romantically." She had a smirk on her face and a mischievous gleam in her eyes. The reply threw Rose of slightly, so she didn't see the punch heading for her shoulder till the very last second.

She quickly grabbed it and twisted her attacker's wrist. "Why would I be romantically involved with anyone?" Rose titled her head as another question popped into it.

Seeing that she was distracted by her thoughts, Ronny decided to take this opportunity and free herself from Rose's grip. After noticing she no longer had a hold on Ronny: she jumped back from the kick heading her way; did a shoulder roll to get behind Ronny; tried to back kick her but was stopped when Ronny grabbed her foot and landed on her feet when Ronny flipped her over. Rose turned to face the yellow clad girl, "Who could I be romantically involved with?"

Being a ranger didn't exactly give any of them time date outside of work. It was possible for Ronny and Will because they were dating each other. When Dax tried to date it ended horribly; who would have thought his girlfriend would be an evil bitch that was trying to kill them. Who she could date outside of work wasn't relevant, there was only one guy on her mind.

The blonde girl lunged at her dark haired friend and caught her in a bear hug. Rose, using physics, was able to hold her own against the bigger girl. Ronny began to talk in a suggestive tone, "I don't know. Maybe a taller guy," they started to move in a circle, "curly hair might be your type, goofy grin, blue eyes." Rose looked perplexed, not understanding any of her friend's hints. Ronny was getting fustrated, she huffed and said: "Tendency to wear red." Rose tried to keep up the confused facade but Ronny saw right through it, "Don't pretend you don't know who I'm talking about!"Ronny let out;pissed by the child prodigy.

Rose wanted to avoid the subject so she used all her might to force Ronny onto her knees. Ronny fell to the ground, back turned towards Rose, and closed her eyes as she was put into an arm lock. She involuntarily let out a sharp gasp from the pain and Rose smiled due to the success of her attack. "Still think I'm not in the position to be cocky."

"Ha ha Rose, very funny. But just 'cause," she grunted as Rose pulled on her arm, "just 'cause I'm on my knees doesn't mean I'll surrender. I'm talking about Mack and you know it." Ronny declared knew about Rose's crush on Mack and she was going to get her to admit to it one way or another.

Rose was annoyed at Ronny for making such an assumption. The short ranger bent down to Ronny's level then asked, "What makes you think I would date Mack?" Rose wanted to know how obvious her affections for the red ranger were. It was music to the kneeling girl's ears to hear that question.

With a plastered smirk on her face, she began to list all the proof she had, "Well you both love to read, have the same sense of humour, give each other secrective smiles when you think no one's watching, not to mention the looks you give me when I stand closer to him than you can and-"

"I do NOT give you looks when you stand next to him." Rose blurted out defensively while her eyes darted around. Subsequently, she mental slapped herself for her outburst.

By saying she didn't give Ronny looks just gave Ronny more of a reason to believe that Rose gave her looks.

"And Dax doesn't have a bag full of marbles," Ronny said, "Anyway, as I was saying, you ogle at each other."

"Okay, that is absurd! We do not ogle at each other, we make eye to eye contact!"

"Eye to eye contact my ass, you gaze into each others eyes and ogle!"

"That is a lie!"

"Then how come, yesterday, when we had that water fight and Mack took off his shirt, you were practically drooling at his big ol' man chest." Ronny let out a victorious puff of air and looked back to see a foaming Rose. The world famous racer wasn't fazed by her disgruntled face, the smoke coming out of her ears or that she had just flipped her onto her back. She simply looked up at the ranger on top of her, smiled and said: "We all know you like Mack and I'm pretty sure he likes you too."

Rose's face dropped exposing a dumbfounded look. Ronny lifted her leg, kicked Rose over her shoulders, onto her back and got up. She looked down at Rose who still looked perplexed.

"Mack likes me?" She asked in a quiet, squeaky voice.

"I never said it was definite," Ronny replied, " but what I do know is. I. Kicked. Your ass."

What did you think? Tell me if you want more. If you do I'll keep writing.


	2. The first step is admitting it

(A/n:Thanks to all who read and favourited the first chapter. I still can't believe I wrote a fight scene?. Any who, it's Mack's turn for intterogation. Enjoy.)

Ronny and Rose walked into the games room in their workout clothes, the boys were there but non looked over as the girls entered. Ronny look at her boyfriend who was playing a game on the console with Dax while Mack sat and watched. The yellow ranger went to sit on the couch Will occupied and Rose stayed standing in the doorway watching the gameplay. Will was unaware of Ronny's presence until he got a wiff of her.

"Eww, you stink!" He cried squinting his eyes and turning his head but still focusing on the game.

"Thank you, boyfriend, for your love and support." Ronny replied sarcastically, "You're welcome." Will grinned slyly.

Ronny gave the back of his head a 'you did not just say that' look then looked at Rose and raised an eyebrow. The pink ranger shrugged her shoulders. Mack watched, expectantly, waiting to see what Ronny would do; he tried to hold in the laugh threating to leave his throat. Mack looked at Rose and they shared one of their 'secret smiles'.

The irked girl in yellow stood up then put herself on the black rangers lap and threw her arms around his neck. He instantly yelped and shoved his hand in to Ronny's face causing the girl to fall onto the couch but still have her legs on his lap.

Immediately after; Dax jumped up, hands in the air, and yelled, "I AM THE VICTOR!" to which Rose, Ronny and Mack burst out in hysterics.

"You only won 'cause my GIRLFRIEND distracted me." He shot Ronny a pointed look when he said 'girlfriend'.

"Well maybe if my BOYFRIEND," Ronny gave him the same look, "was nice to me, I wouldn't have needed to distract him."

The couple glared at each other then went on to playfully hit one another.

Rose chuckled lightly. She wanted what Ronny and Will had with Mack. Trust, love, playful banter. She did already have those three things with Mack but she wanted their love to be the romantic kind, not the friendly or brother/sister kind. She wanted their relationship to be more than it already was and if Ronny's prediction was correct, he wanted that too.

"Who's next to challenge Dax the champ?" Dax proclaimed trying to be as macho as possible.

Mack put a hand on Dax, "Calm down buddy." Dax sat down and looked at the ground. Mack continued, "Anyway you can't call yourself the champ if you haven't played me." Dax looked up at Mack and pointed, "Oh, you are on."

Mack smiled, "Will, chuck the controller over." The red ranger streched out his arms as his team mate threw him the controller.

Mack didn't have his jacket on so Rose got full view of his magnificent arms. They were big and she imaged how they would feel wrapped around her.

Strong, firm and protective but gentle at the same time; he wouldn't want to hurt her. They would lift her up in one movement and carry her to their happily ever after, they would-.

"Ogling" the word was covered by a forced cough. Rose gave Ronny the stink eye. Ronny played innocent and patted her chest while using her other hand to cover up her beaming lips. Will rubbed his partner's back but hid his face trying to suppress the grin that was surfacing. Rose rolled her eyes at the pair, luckily, the two other boys didn't notice any of what was happening.

Rose looked in Ronny's direction, "I'm gonna take a shower. Wash off all the butt kick you served me."

"Don't act like your the only one in pain, I think you popped something out of place." Ronny finished her sentence by slowly moving her shoulder in a circular motion.

Dax smiled ruefully, "Rose is a fiesty one." This was followed by an appreciative look from Rose, "Yeah, just 'cause I wear pink doesn't mean I'm a prissy little barbie doll." Mack gave Rose a small charming smile, "We know." The pink ranger returned his smile. They stared in to each other's eyes oblivious to observing rangers around them.

Will sighed with a slight pang of anger, "For the love of Jebus I can't believe they're doing it again, when will they get together. Honestly, sometimes I just wanna lock them in a candle lit room with a bed and some Lionel Richie." Will whispered to Ronny.

She responded by lightly shaking her head and whacking him on the arm. After, she pecked him on the lips and got up.

She interupted the crushing rangers' moment by saying: "Come on Rose, we better get cleaned up before we stink up the whole mansion." She clasped Rose's shoulders and guided her out of the room. Mack watched Rose as she was pushed towards the stairs.

Dax and Will raised their eyebrows at each other as they noticed their leader swooning over the petite girl in pink. Once Mack had snapped out of his haze, he turned towards the TV, "let's play", he clicked restart but as soon as the game refreshed Dax hit pause. Mack, feeling confused, turned towards Dax and was surprised to see an uncharacteristic seriousness on his looked over at Will, who was opposite him, and found he had the same expression.

"What's up with you two?" Mack asked crossed his arms across his chest, "When are you going to admit it to yourself?"

"Admit what?" Mack was now seriously worried,he thought his friends had gone crazy.

"That you like a certain genius girl who's short with dark hair." Dax stated. "And a penchant for pink." Will added.

It all clicked together in Mack's mind. "What? Rose," he flapped his lips," I don't, I don't like Rose like that.I mean I like her alot but not like that 'alot'.I mean I like her as a, as a friend but not like a, you know.I just like her but not like her like her.I just like her."

Dax said, "Common stages of denial: First, not admitting to it, , using one word way too many times in a sentence to defend yourself."

"You lost me by the fourth 'like'." Will told Mack;backing up Dax.

"And, finally, continuosly going on about how what your being accused of isn't true even though no one believes you and if you do that I will drown you in a batch of Spencer's lemonade." Dax ended the sentence with a wag of his finger directed at Mack.

The red ranger held his hands up, "Fine I won't try to convince you."

"Good!" The other boys said in unison.

"Even though it isn't true." Mack other boys groaned while Mack laughed.

"Mack this isn't a joke, the sooner you accept that you have a thing for Rose, the sooner we can all be happier." Will said seriously.

"Okay, I'll admit defeat if you can bring forth one piece of evidence that I like her."

Dax and Will took turns easily listing things that prove Mack's affection.

"You both read like crazy."

"You have the same sense of humour."

"You share secrective smiles when you think no ones looking."

"You eye us when we get to close to her."

Mack had to bite his tongue to stop himself from denying what was the truth.

"And, yesterday, when we had a water fight you were ogling at Rose in her one piece and shorts."

"Damn guys, I said ONE." Mack curly haired boy accepted his defeat, "I guess maybe I like Rose."

Will scoffed, "You know damn well you have a full blown crush on her." He gave an evil grin.

The blue ranger rustled Mack's hair, "It's okay to like girls Mack, we're old enough to know cooties do not exsist."

Mack pushed Dax which resulted in his friend falling flat on the floor. Will and Mack started laughing but were cut off by the sound of their trackers.

"Rangers, I need you in the command centre now." The worried voice of Andrew Hartford rang through.


	3. Rose's Curse

**(A/n: Sorry about the last chapter, formatting messed it up so lots of words are missing. I'm going back to school on Monday so I might not gonna update as frequently but I hope you enjoy. R&R)**

"Where are the girls?" Andrew asked.

"They went to get cleaned up, they should be here any-"

"We're here, what' going on?"

Rose interrupted Mack as she and Ronny ran into the command center.

"There is a large amount of energy coming from the city plaza, I think it's being attacked my one of Flurious or Moltors' goons? Go see what's happening." Andrew answered hastily.

"Let's go." Will called and the rangers ran to towards the garage.

Mack and Rose were sat in the jeep while they and the other rangers sped towards the scene, lost in their own thoughts.

The pink ranger couldn't get what Ronny told her earlier out of her head.

_'Mack likes me, Mack likes me, possibly, statistics would show there's a fifty-fifty chance of him liking me but... still means he probably likes me'_ Rose thought enthusiastically; full attention on the road.

Mack looked over at his pink beauty as she concentrated on the road ahead. He noted how her eyes squinted and ever so slightly puckered her lips when she was focused.

_'She's so amazing. The guys are right, I need to admit that I like her. I swear to myself, I am going to tell her how I feel when we get back. If I don't, I'll get one of the guys to punch me.'_ He nodded to himself.

The two of them stayed lost in their thoughts until a ball of light hit them. The jeep swerved, Dax's quad abruptly stopped; almost throwing him off and Will and Ronny fell off their bikes.

All of them quickly recovered from the attack and got in to fight stances.

"Where did that come from?" Dax asked while looking around.

Everyone else looked around and shook their heads; just as confused as Dax.

"That's a shame, I was hoping that blast would keep you out of the way for a while."

The rangers turned as they heard a feminine voice laced in venom and were meet by a lilac and white bird creature with the body shape of a slim woman. She was checking her nails, more like talons.

"It's gonna take more than one blast to take us down." Ronny said, staring down the monster in front of them.

"Well, if your going to be sticking around you should know my name. I, am Lullaby."

"Last time I checked Lullabys were nice." Rose retorted with a raise of her eyebrows.

"Very funny but now that we are acquainted," Lullaby drew out her words and placed her hands on her hips, "I'll take another shot at blasting you to oblivion!" She ended her sentence fast and loud then sent another blast at the rangers.

They forward rolled away from the blast, Mack yelled "Ready?" and the others responded.

"Overdrive Accelerate!"

They all engaged in the fight, taking blows at Lullaby. Lullaby got the upper hand but soon lost it when Mack called the Drive Lance. He counteracted all her attacks and sent her flying. This agitated the bird, "You broke my talon," she gave a dark, evil glare: her voice became demonic, "You will pay for that!"

She screeched and began to flap her wings. Powerful wind was generated, Mack braced himself to prevent getting blown away but couldn't move forward to attack Lullaby. Green mist then emitted from Lullaby's wings and made its way towards Mack.

Rose managed to look up from the ground to see the mist heading towards her crush. She forced herself up and sprinted against the wind to Mack. She shoved him out of the way, pulled out her Drive Geyser then shoot the monster but that didn't stop the green mist spiraling around her legs, up her body and completely engulfing her.

The wind stopped as Lullaby and Rose collapsed simultaneously. The pink ranger fell out of her morph and lay on the ground, unconscious. The other rangers powered down and ran to their friend. Mack put her head on his lap and pleaded for her to wake up, he was getting distressed so began to roll her head side to side. He bit down on the inside of his cheek to prevent the tears in his throat rolling down his face.

Mack was so hell-bent on getting Rose to wake up he didn't notice the others turn to face Lullaby or hear her declare she would be back or see her disappear with a wave of her wings.


	4. Sleeping Rose

(**A/n: Here's some more story but this chapter is short, I got home late and decided to write but I'm kind of tired so I need to sleep especially since I've got school. The next chapter is gonna be kinda fluffy involving a Mack and Rose moment to make up for the pitiful length of this and no action or romance. However, I hope you enjoy.)**

The rangers, Spencer and Mr Hartford had been observing Rose for half an hour. She was still passed out and every attempt they made to get her awake failed. They had discovered that Lullaby had not only put her curse on Rose but on other citizens in San Angeles. They were focused hard, each one of them doing their own bit of research or testing.

Mack kept looking over at his sleeping Rose and was getting more and more depressed by the second. He couldn't believe what she had done for him or why she did it. Was it because he was her team mate or because she felt something more for him? He knew if roles were reversed, he would have copied Rose's actions in a heartbeat but would he have done it as quickly for the other members? He was also frustrated because now he couldn't confess his feelings for her. He wouldn't find out how she felt about him. He would never get to hold her. He would never get to kiss her.

This last thought took him over the edge and he couldn't take it anymore. Being around the pink ranger was too much. The heartbroken boy stopped what he was doing and walked out of the command center. Everyone looked up as Mack left; they understood he had feelings for Rose and that he was probably distressed by the situation. Having known the ranger longer than the others and having a close relationship with him, Spencer felt that it was his duty to comfort the rangers' leader. Without saying anything, he left and followed the route Mack took and ended up by the hammock at the front of the house.

Mack was sitting on the hammock, as opposed to lying on it, with his head in his hands. Spencer came and sat himself next to Mack.

"What is wrong with you, Mackenzie?"

Mack looked at the butler, "Take a guess?"

Spencer sighed, realising this was going to take longer than he anticipated, "I don't mean THAT."

"You don't mean that I'm sulking because Rose isn't waking up and it's my fault." Mack stated. His bad mood made him sound snarky but Spencer was keeping his cool.

"No I don't mean that, even though it's true," Spencer added, "I MEAN, why aren't you trying to save her."

"I did try."

" 'Did' is not a good enough answer," He said sternly, "you have to keep trying. You wouldn't give up normally," he shook Mack's arm lightly and went back to his calm voice, "you're a fighter. I would think seeing the woman you love in trouble would give more of a reason keep going."

Mack gaped at his close friend then decided to to make a big deal out of it; of course he knew, everyone else did.

Spencer smiled, "I am very, VERY sure that Rose feels the same about you as you do for her and she would have reacted the same as you but she would realise that the situation could only get better if she made the effort." he patted the boy on the back and stood. He looked at Mack, expectantly, waiting to see him get up. Spencer was happy to see him stand, let out a sigh and walk back into the mansion.


	5. Promises

**(A/n: Hello people, how you doing? I'm feeling good so I'm writing more story. Hope you enjoy)**

Mack woke slowly from his sleep. It was dark, as he expected, but his surroundings were unfamiliar. There were lots of shapes in the darkness and beeping. He soon realised he wasn't in his bed, he had fallen asleep on a desk next to a laptop and he was still in his uniform. Having an idea as to where he was he got up and looked for the lights. He found it and switched them on. His prediction was correct, he was in the command center.

Mack thought back to the events of the day and realised how he wound up waking up in there.

After being spoken to by Spencer, Mack joined the others and was more determined than ever to save Rose. It was getting close to five o'clock and everyone decided they had done enough for the day, however, Mack wanted to stay and keep working. He had fought with the others until they all gave up and let him have his way. Mr Hartford had told him that he would put the lights on a timer and not to stay up too late; that failed.

The red ranger was about to leave when he heard a murmur. He turned around and saw his favourite girl in pink lying on a table in the middle of the command center.

Rose.

He walked over to the table, dragged a chair next to her, took her hand and sat down.

"Rose, I know you probably can't hear me but, what the hell, I need to say this." He took a small breath.

"When I first saw you, I liked you. Not like I do now but I still liked you. You were smart and pretty with a sense of humour and strong and willing and just perfect. You still are. As time went on, I grew to like you even more and I wanted to get closer to you. Eventually I realised something, I." Rose had a piece of hair over her eye so Mack smiled and brushed it away, "Love you. I really do, I'm not sure when it started but I finally realised, I love you and I'm not gonna let you go." He squeezed her hand then continued, "I promise, I will do EVERYTHING in my power to get you out of this and make that thing pay for what happened to you." He paused, "But I do wish I knew why you pushed me out of the way in that fight?"

Mack sighed and kissed Rose's hand. He then stood up then leaned over to stroked her smooth cheek, he wanted to do more so kissed her forehead tenderly as well.

While walking out of the command center and turning off the lights, Mack thought to himself: 'I'm gonna save you Rose, I promise.'

**I swear my chapters are getting shorter and shorter. I am so sorry about this but I hope they're still enjoyable : )**


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